The storefront of the future? Tokyo department store digitizes its window display

Many national convenient store chains in Japan have installed digital signage at their storefronts to lure customers inside. The retail industry is typically aggressive, using enormous bright screens to showcase different products, to both encourage more purchases and to communicate their message.

Japanese department store Parco has long been the center of the nation’s trendy fashions. And recently it has installed digital signage at its Shibuya storefront. There are six vertical screens that make up its ‘P-Wall’, showcasing the different products available on the Parco website, including 1,000 products by various brands.

People can touch different products to see more details, or even check if that product is available in different colors. This P-Wall initiative was completed in collaboration with Tokyo-based TeamLab, and you can get a better idea of how the screens work in the video below.

The six adjacent screens replace the traditional shop display windows, letting customers check out a variety of products in one place instead of browsing store after store. Many stores are trying to establish a better connection between their real stores and their online malls, and we’ll have to wait to see if P-Wall proves an effective solution for this problem.

Yukari is a tech writer based in Tokyo, with previous experience working with a few startups in Japan. She also supervised the Japanese caption and narration of the movie “Social Network”. She aspires to contribute to Japanese startup scene by what she does best: writing. Find her on Twitter, at @yukari77.